How a teacher greets students, takes care of logistics, and begins his or her lessons is CRUCIAL! During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT beforeclass begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson? Is the approach your CT used during this lesson consistent with what you read in "Teach Like a Pirate."
Observation:
Ms. Ferry (6th Grade) started class by having a sign posted on the door instructing students to bring a dry erase marker to today's class. She stood in the middle of the classroom in front of the groups of desks, close to the entrance so that students had to see her as she entered. She stood there shuffling a deck of playing cards in her hands. The students came in buzzing with excitement, but immediately were entranced with what was to come next, why is she shuffling cards. Ms. Ferry started having each student pick a card and go sit in their seat. She told them as well to direct themselves toward the board where their daily entry question waited. Today's question was a broad question: "what would you like to review before tomorrows test?" The students sat down and settled down within the first 5 minutes or so. The students were wondering what the cards were for but still were able to jot down a topic or two that they would like to review for the test. The cards themselves were how Ms. Ferry planned to divide the class for review- she took Ace-8 of each suite and the kids were randomly given cards to split them into groups for a group review. She then posed them questions, had them answer using white boards, and work together on a couple of group big white board drawings.
Reflection: Ms. Ferry's approach was fairly consistent with "Teach Like a Pirate." The students walked into the room and found their teacher behaving in a way that was interesting and different. The students were immediately engaged and interested. One class in fact had circled Ms. Ferry completely as they came in buzzing with questions. Ms. Ferry didn't let this both her or falter as she directed them to her seats and reminded them that they should be doing the question on the board. The "Do now" approach on the board was really effective as she was able to direct students to it. Furthermore, it got students thinking about the task ahead of them, the class review. It also gave Ms. Ferry a few ideas as to where the students themselves felt were the weakest in and then could adjust review time accordingly. The use of random grouping was effective as it got a nice mix of kids together and parts of the review required group work. I liked that the groups were random as it wasn't just friends sitting with friends and allowed me to see that most of students interacted and socialized well.
Observation:
Ms. Ferry (6th Grade) started class by having a sign posted on the door instructing students to bring a dry erase marker to today's class. She stood in the middle of the classroom in front of the groups of desks, close to the entrance so that students had to see her as she entered. She stood there shuffling a deck of playing cards in her hands. The students came in buzzing with excitement, but immediately were entranced with what was to come next, why is she shuffling cards. Ms. Ferry started having each student pick a card and go sit in their seat. She told them as well to direct themselves toward the board where their daily entry question waited. Today's question was a broad question: "what would you like to review before tomorrows test?" The students sat down and settled down within the first 5 minutes or so. The students were wondering what the cards were for but still were able to jot down a topic or two that they would like to review for the test. The cards themselves were how Ms. Ferry planned to divide the class for review- she took Ace-8 of each suite and the kids were randomly given cards to split them into groups for a group review. She then posed them questions, had them answer using white boards, and work together on a couple of group big white board drawings.
Reflection:
Ms. Ferry's approach was fairly consistent with "Teach Like a Pirate." The students walked into the room and found their teacher behaving in a way that was interesting and different. The students were immediately engaged and interested. One class in fact had circled Ms. Ferry completely as they came in buzzing with questions. Ms. Ferry didn't let this both her or falter as she directed them to her seats and reminded them that they should be doing the question on the board. The "Do now" approach on the board was really effective as she was able to direct students to it. Furthermore, it got students thinking about the task ahead of them, the class review. It also gave Ms. Ferry a few ideas as to where the students themselves felt were the weakest in and then could adjust review time accordingly. The use of random grouping was effective as it got a nice mix of kids together and parts of the review required group work. I liked that the groups were random as it wasn't just friends sitting with friends and allowed me to see that most of students interacted and socialized well.